Can Suffering Be Good for Us?

Job 1:22: “In all this Job did not sin nor charge God with wrong.”

The book of Job addresses the difficult question of why affliction after affliction comes on a believer’s life; why God’s children seem to have suffered so intensely from the beginning of the ages down to these modern times. God is ultimately sovereign over everything, including the trials and temptations that we experience. This doesn’t mean He causes bad things to happen to good people, but rather that the difficult things of our lives are “Father-filtered.” This distinction may seem small, but it is not trivial. Job teaches us that the suffering of the righteous is not an expression of God’s anger but His love, as He uses the suffering we experience and face to help us grow and mature. Augustine put it this way: “God had one Son on earth without sin, but never one without suffering.” This obviously means then that a new believer cannot suppose that everything in their life will go smoothly after they have been converted. But they, and we, can trust that our heavenly Father preserves and keeps His children in the midst of all of the temptations and trials of this life.

Many years ago a pastor lost his entire family in a fire. He was walking through his city, Lausanne, Switzerland, discouraged, depressed, and defeated; trying to understand God’s purpose in allowing him to suffer so great a loss. As he walked, he passed a construction site where a great cathedral was being built. He watched as a stonecutter chiseled a small triangle out of stone. Curious, the pastor asked him what he was doing. The stonecutter stopped his work and pointed to a spot near the top of the towering structure and said, “Sir, do you see that tiny opening at the top of the cathedral?” “Yes,” replied the pastor. “Well,” said the stonecutter, “I am cutting out this piece down here so that it will fit in up there.” In an instant, the pastor realized that this was what God was doing in his own life. He received peace and returned to his serving with a renewed trust and zeal for the Lord. When hard times come (and they will), we can respond in one of two ways. We can either move toward God, or we can move away from Him.

“Thank You, LORD, that you are still chiseling away on us down here. Have your way in our lives today.”